A normal person would be scared witless from being stared down by hundreds of red beady eyes. Good thing Cage was by no means normal. He had stared down an army before and had watched as they were slaughtered mercilessly, albeit indirectly, but that's beside the point.
He may or may not have almost lost his lunch from experiencing the memory, but it wasn't even a competition compared to a few spiders.
At least that was what he thought...
Cage failed to recall one crucial detail. Human strength in his old world was limited. There also weren't any magical abilities, and there were no beasts. His old self had refined his physical skill and technique to the very limits, but all matter of trickery is useless in the face of absolute strength.
There were hundreds of crawlers. Cage could tell at a glance that the majority were Stage Zero, but some were at higher Stages.
The crawlers descended all at once and surrounded him in an instant.
Boom!
In the shadows, one especially large crawler landed with a thud. Normally a beast would have a savage aura, but this one's aura felt elegant. It stepped forward into the dim lighting. A word to describe its appearance would be stunning.
'It' was actually 'she'. The lower half was a shiny black spider-carapace where each leg was seemingly sharp enough to pierce through solid metal, it radiated a strong sense of danger. The top half was that of a girl with an appearance of being 17 or 18 years old. She had snow white hair and deep sky-blue eyes. She wore a simple top that highlighted her physique and left her stomach exposed. Cage didn't dare to stare too closely for fear of losing his sanity.
Cage couldn't help but be perplexed as to who this demi-human was. She was obviously an arachne, but why would one be ordering around the beasts?
She licked her lips in a seductive manner. "Test him..."
With the order given, the crawlers began to slowly approach.
While all of the crawlers had similar appearances, there were some minute differences. Some had gray stripes, some had sharper legs, some were bigger, some were smaller, and one even had red stripes running along its back.
The run with red stripes gave off a similar pressure to the quilled wolf he fought before. 'Is it also a mutant? If so, this should be an opportunity to test my skills. That still leaves the question though, why is she testing me?'
Regardless of the answer, he would have to fight the swarm of crawlers.
He readied his dagger.
As is on queue, the closest crawlers lunged at him.
In the next moment, where Cage had stood was covered in a squirming mass of limbs and carapace.
[Resonation!]
A silvery streak of light swept across the mound several times in rapid succession, all the squirming stopped.
As if the crawlers were never actually one piece, they became dismembered like jigsaw pieces with blood spurting out.
Cage flexed his hand a few times with an amused expression. "It's nice to see that my hard work has payed off."
[Burst!]
Boom!
Like a bullet, Cage shot forward into the wave of squirming arachnids.
Using the momentum he had, he launched a front kick at a crawler. Under the immense force, the crawler was squished into a bloody paste.
He quickly swung his dagger and split two more crawlers in half.
Cage swung, stabbed, and slashed repeatedly. But no matter how many he killed, they kept coming like an endless wave. The red striped crawler seemed to realize that the Stage Zero beasts were no different than cannon fodder to the cat-boy in front of them.
"SCREEE!"
It let out a screech. Simultaneously, all of the Stage Zero crawlers began to retreat into the darkness.
The white haired girl stood some ways back, and nodded in approval and wore a fascinated expression as if she were looking at a new toy.
The battlefield was covered in the blood, limbs, and bodies of the fallen crawlers. Cage looked around observing the enemies left.
There was only about 50 crawlers left, but they all gave off a strong aura. The strongest one among them was the red striped crawler.
Cage let out a small smile. "Now that the cannon fodder is gone, I can get serious..."
Several of the crawlers took a step back. They felt a strong pressure bearing down on them, it was being released from the cat-boy in front of them.
"Scree!"
Seemingly giving out another order, the remaining crawlers quickly grouped into teams of three. Moreover, it seemed like they all had different roles to play.
Seeing the change, Cage quickly went on guard. 'Just how high is that red crawler's intelligence? It is truly deserving of being a mutant...'
The remaining crawlers, which were all Stage One or higher, clearly had higher intelligence than their Stage Zero counterparts.
Cage would much rather fight a strong enemy who is stupid than an enemy who has is weak but has high intelligence. Even more so when said enemy was both strong and intelligent.
'Well, this will be a good opportunity for me to work on my technique. It's not very often I fight strong enemies- no, that's not true. Why the hell am I fighting something strong like every other day?!'
The crawlers slowly closed in once again, but they were coordinated this time. Cage had to take them seriously this time. It would only take one misstep...
Cage held the dagger out in front of him at an angle. The first group of crawlers abruptly increased in speed and charged at him.
Not wanting to lose initiative Cage responded with a slash of his dagger.
To his surprise though, the crawler he targeted parried it. The two other crawlers quickly took advantage of the momentary gap in defense and reared their fangs back.
Having only a few options, Cage jumped back to make distance.
While in the air, he suddenly felt three sources of killing intent behind him!
'A trap?!'
He quickly spun around and twisted his body.
[Burst!]
Using the shock wave, Cage narrowly dodged the surprise attack.
'This will be troublesome. They are coordinating their attacks and not leaving any openings...'
Cage quickly realized that he would be worn out if he kept fighting so linear. He was outnumbered. The crawlers were using rotation tactics to wear him down.
Cage ran away towards a small formation of stalactites with the first group of crawlers in pursuit. Jumping into the air, Cage flashed his dagger a couple times towards the stalactites.
Crack!
The stalactites began to fall. Twisting his body again in a way to position himself, Cage placed his palm on the ends of the stalactites.
[Burst!]
Like a storm of bullets, the stalactites rained down and began to accelerate rapidly. The team of crawlers that was initially chasing him had no time to react as they turned into Swiss-cheese and were killed instantly.
Cage looped around and made his way back to the initial battlefield.
'I need to figure out my advantages...'
Another group abruptly appeared and intercepted him. One came from the front while the other two attacked his blind spots and aimed for his vitals.
Cage dipped down and weaved in between the three crawlers, dodging their attacks like flowing water.
He swung his dagger a few times and turned the group of three crawlers into a group of three corpses.
Making distance between his adversaries, Cage jumped backwards a little farther and placed his hand on the ground.
Cage let out a small grin. "I hope you like this present of mine..."
[Resonation!]
Controlling his mana, the ground before Cage began to crumble away and turn to dust. With a violent explosion, dust shot into the air.
[Burst!]
Activating his [Burst] skill, Cage made an artificial smoke screen.
Cage chuckled internally, 'If the enemy relies too heavily on sight, take away their sight...'
Slipping into the dust cloud, Cage carefully made his way to the center of the battlefield and set his plan to motion.
[Burst!]
The smoke screen cleared. Simultaneously, all 400 or so beady red-eyes focused on him. They quickly encircled him.
Cage tossed his dagger up into the air. All of the eyes followed the dagger that had a silver gleam as it twirled through the air.
The red crawler was initially confused as to why the cat-boy would throw away its only weapon, but felt something was off.
It looked back to the enemy, only to find the enemy with both hands placed on the stone floor.
It quickly tried to warn its team mates, realizing they had fallen into his trap. "Screeee!"
Cage smiled menacingly, "It's too late!"
[Resonation: EX!]
As if an earthquake had begun, the entire cavern began to shake immensely. Cracks began to web out with Cage as the epicenter. The floor, the wall, and the ceiling all began to crumble. Several of the crawlers closest to Cage exploded and turned into a bloody mist.
'I poured in almost a third of my total mana into this... If this doesn't work then I'm going to be in deep trouble. I only have a fifth of my mana left now.'
Craaack! Boom!
The ceiling caved in on its self, unable to support its wight in its weakened state.
Debris rained down. Cage quickly raised his palm.
[Burst!]
Using his skill to shield himself from the falling debris, Cage managed to come out with only minor scratches. Cage looked around and saw various limbs reaching out of the debris, but there was no movement.
Suddenly, he felt a large mass of mana gather.
[Fire Bomb!]
A huge fireball began to descend to Cage. It was so hot Cage could feel his eyebrows get singed.
He rushed behind cover in the nick of time and avoided it by a hair. Huge flames passed overhead from beyond the cover of rock.
'That was a spell! Don't tell me...'
Cage looked to the source and found the things left alive in the area were Cage, and the red-striped crawler; And the white haired girl, but she was probably observing from somewhere.
The red-striped crawler stood alone, facing him.
'F*ck...'